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City County discuss special tax district

Staffing and budget items on the table for fire and ambulance services

By Chris Frost

Ledger General Manager

Posted:
08/08/2016 03:27:27 PM MDT

City Administrator John Sutherland (left) Councilman Felix Dias and Mayor Roger Stagner review the special district for fire and ambulance services during the city and county budget workshop, Tuesda, July 26. (Chris Frost / Lamar Ledger)

The Lamar City Council discussed a possible special district for the Lamar Fire and Ambulance services during its city and county budget workshop, Tuesday July 26.

The city and county is faced with increased need for service and has struggled to match the need with budgeted dollars and qualified personnel in recent years.

Fire Chief Jeremy Burkhart said the ambulance service covered the eastern half of Bent County for the last week in a half.

"They didn't have any EMT's on call," he said. "Las Animas was covering just a little bit past Hasty and we were covering to there," he said.

Councilwoman Anne-Marie Crampton said there was a plan to have an intermediate EMT class at Lamar Community College.

"The challenge is recruiting people with full tuition and fees," he said.

Mayor Roger Stagner said with the new ambulance service coming in its salary structure could make the situation worse.

"If they out pay us then where are we at," he said.

Commissioner Wendy Buxton Andrade asked if there was going to be a task force to look into getting the special district on the ballot.

"Jeremy and I had a phone call to Ireland Stapleton and had a lengthy conversation about what it would take to get something going and the dollars," Treasurer Kristin McCrea said. "Their firm does this for people and gets the ballot issue written."

She said they had a lot of good information.

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"They are an inclusive agency," Burkhart said. "They go from beginning to end."

Sutherland said the cost was $90,000 when they spoke to them a couple of years ago.

"I don't know Wendy if I'm quite at that point yet," Sutherland said. "I would like us to put together a pro-forma budget for what we think this would look like. That will give us a sense of what our possible shortfalls are."

He said it comes down to the desires of the elected officials.

"What are we trying to accomplish and are we willing to go down that path," he asked. "It's another tax."

Burkhart said there is no statue requiring emergency medical services.

"There is only fire protection," he said.

Holly has a special district.

"That will make it difficult for us too because we don't get to have it cut out of our district," Sutherland said.

McCrea pointed out that Holly is having staffing issues.

"You can have money to run it, but if you don't have the staff to run it that's our issue," she said.

Sutherland said it comes down to more than a pay issue.

"This area is dry when it comes to qualified people," McCrea said.

Sutherland said there is about $399,000 worth of revenue that can be generated by a special district.

"We're actually running ahead of our revenue for this year," he said. "That would make up a portion and then what's the shortfall?"

That tosses the question back to the council and commissioners.

"If it's a $200,000 shortfall do we each chip in $100,000 and make this work or do we find a special district that raises $200,000," he said.

Burkhart said there are not a lot of staffing grants.

"Some of them are out there, but they expect you to start picking up 50 percent in year two," he said. "It fixes it in the short term but if you hit year three and you don't have the revenue you start laying off people and you're back to square one."

Buxton-Andrade asked about uncollected debt.

"Uncollected is non-collectable debt," Sutherland said. "We turn them over to collections and it's still uncollected."

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